With a Moroccan twist, this spiced eggplant caponata is perfect over pasta with sweet golden raisins and fresh parsley for a simple weeknight meal to serve a crowd of hungry friends.
By Phoebe Lapine
Since college, eggplant caponata has been one of my go-to recipes to feed a crowd of friends. Today, I sadly don’t have the luxury of stretching it with crusty bread. But luckily, I have the budget and the cookware to accommodate getting more than one eggplant involved. 
So I decided to put a little spin on it with some of my favorite spices from the veggie salads I ate in Morocco. I served the Moroccan eggplant caponata on top of Mary’s Gone Crackers as a second appetizer option alongside this Roasted Beet Hummus.
Eggplant Caponata Pasta
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
With a Moroccan twist, this spiced eggplant caponata is perfect over pasta with sweet golden raisins and fresh parsley for a simple weeknight meal to serve a crowd of hungry friends.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large eggplant, diced
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- One 15-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 8 ounces gluten-free fusilli (or other short grain pasta. I used Andean Dream.)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions
- In a large nonstick skillet, heat the olive oil. Saute the eggplant over medium-high heat until beginning to soften, about 8 minutes. Add the onion, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is translucent and the eggplant is tender and beginning to brown, another 10 minutes.
- Stir in the garlic, salt, cumin and cinnamon, and cook until fragrant, 1 minutes.
- Carefully pour in the tomatoes, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Simmer until thickened and the tomatoes have lost their acidic bite, 8 – 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, cook the pasta according to packaged directions until al dente. Drain well and fold into the eggplant mixture. Off the heat, add the lemon juice and parsley. Serve immediately, cold, or at room temperature with a drizzle of olive oil and some toasted almonds or hemp seeds for garnish.
- Category: Main, Side
- Cuisine: Moroccan, Italian
